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La Linea Sicura isn't giving me too many problems... I'm even following the pedal markings (even though I don't like them very much on my digital, but this way when I play an acoustic I won't feel awkward).

If I don't finish my dissertation, it will be Ludovico's fault.

Ohhhh you'll LOVE Oltremare!!! I have almost *got it* and adore playing it many many times a day just for the beauty of it.

I finally got an okay take of "Underwood." I'm not planning on using it for a recital, so I thought I'd post it here for archival purposes. In terms of just the notes, this is probably one of the easiest pieces in the Time Lapse collection, but (good grief!) getting a clean take was next to impossible. I kept skipping notes while trying to play ppp--further evidence that these "simple" delicate pieces are sometimes more challenging than a "busier" piece.

Thank you for sharing Underwood, Monica. It was really beautiful! I play it a lot (it was the second piece I learned from In a Time Lapse after Orbits), but I have never recorded it. You have inspired me to do so. I also wanted to thank you for recommending Nevue a while back. I purchased some sheet music from him when you made the recommendation but didn't play all of the pieces (I just did Solitude). After a long and very unpleasant day at work, I whipped out Wonderland and managed to play through it somewhat musically by the end of the evening. What a remarkable mood changer that was

Monica, very nice! Thanks for sharing the video, I always find your videos so inspiring!

Also, what Carlos said is worth repeating, especially

Quote:

Einaudi's music is harder than it seems.

I had my piano lesson today and I played La Linea Sicura for my piano teacher (maybe I'll write about that later) but it's a similar situation. Note-wise, it could not be easier, but then, there's a lot more than just the notes...

Not sure if I would call Einaudi the "trance of piano," since I think of trance as not having a clear melody line, but if it's trance as in "mesmerizing," then definitely yes!

So I played La Linea Sicura at my lesson the other day. I originally wasn't going to, since note-wise it's so easy. But I'm glad I did, first because I got to play it on a very nice acoustic grand( (unlike my piano, which is a digital). I'm glad I've been playing it with the una corda pedal at home, so that I could experience just how beautiful it is on an acoustic. Also, we talked about voicing and having a quiet thumb (RH) which is a little difficult, so that was very helpful! And my teacher thought it was really beautiful, so maybe I can turn her into an Einaudi convert!

BTW, a while back I was writing about being worried that this piece might bring on hand cramps in the RH for me. Well, it never did, I don't know why exactly, but I think it's because the RH also has the melody (unlike Tiersen's LH part in Comptine...) and maybe I'm just better at being relaxed these days (that would be nice, but I'm not sure that's really it!)

I also showed my teacher Oltremare and had her give me some tips for working on the triplets, the ones that start on page 4 (at least of the sheet music I got from SheetMusicDirect), where it's 3 against 2. Since it's fast-ish, and 3 against 2, my plan is just to play that first section (basically almost all of page 4) for a few weeks before starting on anything else in the piece.

And I also bought the solo arrangement of Nightbook. I've lost my mind!

Carlos, we talked about bringing out the melody line (RH pinkie) while keeping the RH thumb quiet, but still having a fairly good tempo. Paying attention to the melody that comes in on the second beat of the measure and carries over to the first beat of the next measure (those whole notes), so instead of hearing a melody made of 2-3-4, it's 2-3-4-1 (does that make sense, I don't have the score here! But the point is that the phrasing isn't written that way, but if you focus on playing that phrase and having it lead into the next measure, that makes a big difference. So there's a pulse that sort of starts on the down beat of the measure, that is in large part created by the LH, but there's also that phrase that carries you through into the next measure, and that's the kind of voicing we focused on.

Also, there are dynamic markings in the score, so we talked about really focusing on playing those as written (instead of just playing the notes, as it were). Dynamics are big issue for me since I practice on a digital, so just being able to play her piano and hear it was really wonderful.

She said that this piece in particular really is designed to take advantage of the piano as an instrument, as a huge instrument with vibration and pulse as opposed to a keyboard that might be somewhat percussive. And so a big part of that is using the una corda to change the sound color, then releasing it to create intensity and fullness.... She was somewhat more articulate in her explanations, but maybe this conveys some of it.

I am just glad I played it during our lesson, since I really almost wasn't going to, because it's not like I need technical guidance with it.... but because the piece is so easy, it was a good vehicle to talk about musicality....

Thanks for the link BTW. A quick look didn't seem like it was much of a discount, I tend to compare SheetMusicPlus.com and Amazon if I'm buying physical scores, and then I compare SheetMusicPlus and SheetMusicDirect for digital scores (SMD is almost always cheaper).

I think i am going to get the score for Earth Prelude, and then I am NOT buying any more scores for a year. No, really, I mean it!

I'm currently working on Brothers. It just fills me with so much energy! The only problem is that I cannot possibly concentrate on the Clementi sonatina - or any other music really - that my teacher invited me to try .

The notes are easy, but the syncopated rhythm takes some getting used to. My piano also won't be quite enough in the bass. It might be time for an upgrade already. Need better bass notes!

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David Lanz - Dark HorseYiruma - River Flows In You

I started working on "Two Trees". I'm already halfway through and I can see the "intelligence" of Einaudi ... The chords are very well crafted.Monica can confirm that this piece is more difficult than it seems. Especially for me because I have small hands. But I will not give up. The music is wonderful.

So, are you suggesting I am going to need all the specific score collects, instead of just buying the scorebook for Islands? (it's only about $15 on Amazon, not that I was checking or anything...

Honestly, I would advise buying "The Best of" collection, which has *everything* from his early piano solo albums, and then buying the individual songbooks for all the later albums (namely: Una Mattina, Divenire, Nightbook, and In a Time Lapse). "Islands" is missing too many good pieces, and it doesn't have anything from "In a Time Lapse."

Just to add some information about the books:I was doing a research about the duplicated pieces on the books. I wanted to have the highest number of unique pieces with the less number of books (just because I'm not swimming in money).This research was done before "In a Time Lapse" book but this last book has only originals. So, no duplicates.

So I concluded that buying 4 books I could have 66 unique pieces (and then, more 19 with "In a Time Lapse"). So I have now a total of 5 books, and 85 unique pieces. There are few duplicates but I think this is the best combination to save some money: 5 books X ~€15 = €75=> €75/85 pieces = €0,88 cents per piece

Monica, I purchased the Best Of maybe a year ago (on your very excellent advice! :)And let me say that it was one of the better purchases I've ever made! But now that I'm listening to Islands, I want the Earth Prelude, and so on and so forth, so I figured I'd just get the book instead of buying one piece after another (I already bought Oltermare as a single score, oops).

Carlos, that list is very helpful, thanks for posting it! Maybe I'll buy the Island book now, and get one of the others next year...

BTW, I flipped around my plan for the pieces I'm working on. I put of Nefeli on hold until October or November, right now I'm playing just page 4 from Oltremare and when I start Nefeli will depend on how the rest of Oltremare goes.

Re Oltremare, I can't figure out how to speed up the triplets without the 3 against 2 coming apart, but I'll be taking that to my teacher this week, so maybe I'll get some good advice.

I'm guessing this has been discussed here before, but as I was looking through my repertoire, it occurred to me that some Einaudi pieces are like "gateway drugs" in that they make Einaudi's work more accessible to you, but also make you more obsessed with getting more of his work in your fingers. For me, the order of pieces for becoming an Einaudi maniac fan was:I Due FiumiI GiorniLe Onde

Having worked on those, La Linea Sicura seemed very easy, and other pieces seem possible. Let's see how I do with Oltremare!

Monica and Carlos, which Einaudi piece did you two play as your "gateway" piece?

If I understood what you mean with "gateway drugs", I would choose without any doubt:- "Snow prelude no 15" followed by "In principio"I use to play them immediately one after the other. For sure, those are two pieces that leave me in "trance".

It was probably "Nefeli." (It *should* have been "I due fiumi," but I didn't discover that one--thanks, Carlos!--until after I had already worked on and recorded quite a few others.) I had started with either "Exit" or "Limbo," but while I was pleased with how easy those were, they didn't grab my heart the way "Nefeli" did. And then I was hopelessly hooked.

Sinophilia posted about Einaudi playing in the iTunes Festival a little while ago... I just now had the chance to watch the show. It is absolutely fantastic.

If you have iTunes, here's how you find it: on the home page of the iTunes store click on "iTunes Festival", then click on "line up", and look for Einaudi in the alphabetical list. You can click on his name to watch his iTunes concert (for free). The whole thing is amazing, but the live version here of "Waterways" (starts at about 5:55) is indescribably beautiful. Just when I think he can't possibly make his music more lovely, he creates these new arrangements. And just watching his face while he was playing was incredibly moving.

I don't know if iTunes will keep the show footage up past September, so if you want to look it up, do so sooner rather than later.

I couldn't find anything to suggest that it was possible to buy and/or download the video to keep permanently--does anybody know if that's possible and/or how to do so? I'd love to keep that live version of Waterways forever.

Hi Einaudi fansI'm just back playing regularly in the last few months and doing lessons in the last few weeks. I've been working on I Giorni, and I had exactly the same experience as you described Monica when I played for my teacher this week - I was trying to really work on the dynamics and the expression, and found that several times notes that I tried to play pp just didn't sound at all (digital piano, which my teacher thought might have been relevant).This is my first Einaudi, but it won't be my last. I need to master the coda section and polish the whole lot up but I've really enjoyed the experience of learning and playing this piece. I know there is a list somewhere that grades Einaudi pieces by difficulty - my next selection should be from "Islands" (since I bought the book) and not significantly harder than I Giorni (I want something I can get to grips with in weeks rather than months).I'll be reading back over this thread for ideas!BestB